COLUMBUS (WCMH) — If you were one of 23 million Americans who has been the victim of package theft, then you’re part of a growing trend of package theft.

The increase of online shopping has led to increased home deliveries, which gives these shady operators more chances to steal from you.

Donavan Collins installed a security camera on his front door and it was tested a few days later.

“After this I can see how easy it is, I mean they were gone in about six, seven seconds if it wasn’t for that camera, we have, we probably wouldn’t never know if someone would have stolen it or if it didn’t get delivered. Or what would have happened,” said Collins.

After filing a police report, Donavan joined several community groups where the footage was shared.

Detective Regina Dudley of the Columbus Division of Police says, it’s about being pro-active.

“You help your neighbors out. They help you; watch for each other, that’s one of your best defenses in any type of crime any type of situation, because, if they’re allowed to steal your packages and get away with it, who knows what’s going to be next,” says Dudley.

Donavan made arrangements to have his packages delivered somewhere else.

The U.S. Postal Service has a division devoted to this kind of crime, UPS and Fedex tracks package theft rates, but that’s not doing much to slow down the rate of crime, so it falls on consumers to protect themselves as much as possible.

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